Plum Jam Serious Eats
Piedad Coughlin
Update: I've revised this, possibly the most popular umeboshi recipe in English online, to include some key troubleshooting notes. Originally published June 18, 2009. My mom has been making a batch of umeboshi every year since, and I've also added some more notes from her.
My mother came for a visit this week, bringing along a pot of her homemade umeboshi. I asked her to tell me how she makes them; not only did she write it down for me, she even had pictures she'd taken of her attempts in the past couple of years! So, here is my mom's version of how to make homemade umeboshi. I've freely translated her Japanese explanation to English.
My mother [my grandmother - maki] used to make umeboshi every year. When I lived in New York, I was too busy working to do much cooking, let alone umeboshi! But now that I am retired, I'm trying to remember how to do things the old way. Homemade umeboshi is so much more delicious than store bought, so they are worth the effort.
You only need 4 ingredients to make umeboshi: Ume plums, coarse sea salt, red shiso leaves and shochu or shouchuu, a type of distilled alcohol beverage that is available all over Japan and is quite inexpensive. If you can't get shochu, you can use vodka or another kind of flavorless distilled beverage.
(Troubleshooting: The ume plums should look like firm, small unripe apricots. You can't really substitute apricots however because they don't have the tartness that gives umeboshi its unique character. You can give it a try with small, unripe, unblemished apricots if you are determined, but there's absolutely no guarantee of success, so don't blame me if it doesn't work! Other fruit like peaches and nectarines are too big to work.)
You also need some bowls, flat baskets, a large, wide-mouth, a deep container made of ceramic or glass or non-reactive plastic (never metal), a weight or a sturdy plastic bag, and large jars to store your umeboshi.
In Japan, umeboshi are always made in mid to late June, because that's when the ume plums are ready. Ume plums are picked when they are hard and very sour. The kind I use are from the Kishuu region, which is in Wakayama prefecture. Kishuu ume are widely regarded to make the best umeboshi.
I understand that ume plums are now available in the United States. When you buy them, make sure you choose ones that are firm, plump and unblemished. Even small blemishes or cuts on the plums could lead to mold, which is the biggest reason umeboshi can fail.
Once you have the ume plums, carefully remove any remaining stems. The best way to do this is with a cocktail stick. Try not to pierce the ume plum when you're doing this - again, this can lead to mold.
Once the stems are removed, wash the plums in several changes of water, and then fill a large bowl with cold water and leave the ume plums to soak overnight. This gets rid of some of the bitterness in the plums.
Red shiso or perilla leaves give color and flavor to the umeboshi. Use about 10% of the ume plus in weight of shiso leaves - so for 1 kilo of ume plums, use 100g of shiso leaves. Wash them, take off any tough stems, sprinkle with a little salt and massage the leaves with your hands until they are limp.
The amount of salt, or the ratio of salt to ume plums, determines how salty your umeboshi will end up. My mother used to make very salty umeboshi with about 20% salt! I prefer mine to be quite low in salt, so I use only 8%. The lower the salt content, the more prone to mold the ume become, so beginners may want to start with 12% or 10% salt.
Use a large, wide-mouth jar or other fairly deep container. Wash it inside and out thorougly, then disinfect the inside. Some people do this by putting the container in boiling water, but the most common - and convenient - way is to spray it with some shochu or vodka.
Start with a layer of coarse salt. Cover with a layer of ume plums, then a bit of the shiso. Repeat the salt-ume-shiso layers, until the ume are used up. Now, cover the whole thing with a plastic bag or sheet, then put on a weight that is at least half as heavy as the ume plums - in other words, 1 kilo of ume plums requires at least a 500g weight. While there are dedicated ceramic weights available, you can use anything you can find such as a bagful of water (as long as it doesn't leak), a full water bottle, clean rocks in a plastic bag, hand weights or dumbbells, and so on.
Once the container is full and weighted down, cover the top with a clean, porous cloth like a cheesecloth or openweave kitchen towel; secure this with a rubber band or string. Leave in a cool, dark area of your house, until the ume plums become soft and completely immersed in a reddish liquid. This liquid is extracted from the ume plums by the salt. This part of the process will take about a week or more.
(Troubleshooting: If you don't see the liquid coming up to completely cover the plums, try increasing the weight to up to a 1:1 ratio - in other words, for every 1 kg of plums 1 kg of weight.)
Once the ume plums are immersed in the reddish liquid, take the plums and the shiso leaves out of the jar. Reserve the liquid - this is umesu, or ume vinegar, and is delicious! (See instant radish pickle recipe that uses ume vinegar - maki)
Put the ume plums in a single layer on flat baskets, and the shiso leaves in spread-put clumps separately. Here you see that I have lined up the baskets on newspapers out on my apartment balcony. The newspapers protect the top of the table underneath!
(Troubleshooting: If it rains hard and your plums get very wet, take them in and rinse them off in plain water. Take the ume vinegar out of the jar, wash and re-disinfect the jar with vodka or shochu, and re-immerse your plums in the liquid for a day. Re-dry them on the next sunny day.)
The umeboshi are now done. You can store them as-is, in a jar, layering plums with the shiso leaves. Or you can pour back in some of the ume vinegar, to give them a softer texture. This is what I did with this batch.
Umeboshi improves with age for a few years. I usually start eating them 3 years after making them, though you can eat them the same year. At around 5 years I think they are at their best. After about 10 years or so they start to disintegrate and become mushy if kept wet, and rather shriveled like an old lady if kept dry - but they are still edible!
This is so great ! Thank you so much for sharing your moms recipe (and way of making) ! Ume plums have so wonderful aroma.. (and one can think it is sweet judging by the smell..). Back at parents home we have an Ume tree. Too bad it doesnt give plums every year (sadly, flowers dont resist hard winds in tropical storms). My batyan also makes umeboshi herself. It tastes so good... without being packed with sodium glutamate (at least the brand I find here tastes that :( )
wow. I can almost assure that I wont find ume plums here...
I could never gather the courage to try one of these guys out while I was in Japan (about 10 years ago) to my regret. I really want to try one now. unfortunately if it is high in sodium I cant now! I have high blood pressure so its out of the question... what a bummer!
Rei:
All recipes for the umeboshi call for 'sea salt' not iodized salt that is murderous for those of us w/hbp. Sea salt's actually very beneficial for you, high in all types of magnesiums, great for your brain. One that I use is mixture: 1/2 Mediterranean & 1/2 Alaela Hawaiian. Works for me.
Thank you for this tutorial! I love umeboshi, but it's hard to find it without preservatives here. Your mother's photos of the process are wonderful!
Since you're on the topic of ume, do you or your mother happen to have a good recipe for umeshu?
Goodness. My mouth is watering. I have no idea where to find an ume tree so I'm stuck paying an arm and a leg at the Japanese market. It's neat to see the process. So many things get lost as our older generation passes on. Thanks for sharing!
I remember my grandfather climbing the ume tree in his backyard to collect the fruit every year. His umeboshi was the best. I was so sad when my mom set up her private practice on the property and converted the yard into a parking lot. I eat store bought umeboshi but it just isn't the same. Most of the commercial umeboshi contain sugar, MSG and other flavoring ingredients since many people don't prefer the sour and salty taste of traditional umeboshi. This post reminded me to ask my gradfather for his recipe. He's getting old and rather senile so I better do it soon.
Lovely post on umeboshi! I buy them here in London, usually Clearspring ones and they are pretty nice, and no colouring. My japanese friend used to bring me 'karikko' ones, (I think I am remembering that correctly), which were crunchy. Are these made very differently?
Mariko Ito, thank you so much for spotlighting this treasure of Japanese cuisine! Over time umeboshi has become
a staple in my kitchen. I've been fortunate to get the paste, the whole plums, and ume vinegar from a company that
imports Mitoku from Japan (Natural Import Company.)
I've just dived into the bento blog and am getting the feel
for making bento boxes for my lunch which include umeshiso
in rice wrapped in nori. I look forward to seeing your
presentations about using umeshiso,too.
Arigato, Blueirises
Very small plums, about 1 inch in diameter can be used. Unfortunately they are hard to find in stores. Anything bigger will just turn to mush. I was fortunate enough at one time to have an apricot tree that produced very small apricots, just the perfect size for umeboshi. They turned out wonderfully.
my aunt in canada missed having umeboshi so she started growing the red shiso leaves and made umeboshi's with apricot when they were still green. they will turn out with a milder taste but if you can't get ume these are the perfect substitute.
great blog and comments
i've made 4 batches of ume over the past 10 years..and still have some from the first batch.
I didn't know what to use either, but had planted a Shiro Plum here in the Kootenays in BC, so have been using them with great success. The trick is to pick them when green and hard....just before they start turning yellow. They are bigger than what people are talking about as Ume plums, but don't seem to suffer from getting mushy...i too have stored them both dry and in the juice. Shiso is easy to grow and last year i also lucked out with a Japanese friend who had a big plant with lots of babies...i collected the seeds and hopefully will grow my own this year. apricots...i'll look for those small ones ...as i live in a fruit growing area and there are some older trees with lovely small fruit...a different variety than the larger ones. good luck everyone...